50 Books That Will Change Your Life

Lists of books proliferate on the internet, some with provocative titles like “greatest books of all time” or “books that will change your life.” More often than not, the lists do not live up to their titles. Recently, book list compilers have decided that a mortal life can be changed by reading just 50 books (presumably 100 is just too much reading — far too taxing on the eyes and the soul). Bookshelf presents a sampling of three lists titled “50 Books That Will Change Your Life” and will leave it to the discerning reader whether these books truly have the capacity to change their — or anyone’s — life. Nevertheless, just the title of the list invites the intriguing question: “what are the books that have changed your life?” Indeed, those are the ones worth keeping on your bookshelf — to remind you of life’s journey.

Real Simple magazine, not known for probing, intellectual topics (thus the “simple” in the title), dipped its toes in the water of provocative discourse by asking “famous” authors from every genre to “name the title that moved them most.” For what it’s worth, here are the top ten in their list titled “50 Great Books that Will Change Your Life”:

1. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll 2. Black Tickets, by Jayne Anne Phillips 3. The Best American Short Stories 4. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, by Betty Edwards 5. The Inn at Lake Devine, by Elinor Lipman 6. CookWise, by Shirley O. Corriher 7. The Benchley Roundup, by Robert Benchley 8. The Queen’s Gambit, by Walter Tevis 9. Day of Honey: A Memoir of Food, Love, and War, by Annia Ciezadlo 10. The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield

The thoughtful, dedicated readers at Goodreads came up with their own list of the “50 Books that Will Change Your Life” that reads more like a list of most popular fiction. Here are the first ten books from their list:

1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee 2. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini 3. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank 4. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho 5. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 6. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 7. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger 8. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley 9. Lord of the Flies by William Golding 10. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Finally, the list from the writing team at YouQueen.com (“Helping Women Grow in All Aspects of Life”) is the one that actually delivers the goods. Their list, titled “50 Inspirational Books that Can Change Your Life,” features books that probe the depths of the human psyche (male or female). Out of the three, it is the only list that does not over-reach in its expectations: note that the list’s title does not assert that the books “will change your life,” but only that they “can change your life.” Amen, sisters. Without further ado, here are the first ten books in their list:

1. The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma 2. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom 3. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho 4. The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra 5. Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl 6. The Magician’s Way by William Whitecloud 7. Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen 8. The Seat of the Soul by Gary Zukav 9. No Ordinary Moments by Dan Millman 10. Still Me by Christopher Reeve